Will you voluntarily agree to Laxmibai statue: HC to Delhi’s Shahi Idgah panel | Latest News Delhi

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Tuesday asked the Shahi Idgah Managing Committee if it would agree to the relocation of a statue of Rani of Jhansi to the Shahi Idgah Park in the Sadar Bazar area, saying the committee should voluntarily agree to the move rather than the court passing an order.

The bench of chief justice Manmohan and justice Tushar Rao Gedela also wondered why the committee opposed the statue’s installation since Rani Laxmibai was a national figure and not a religious figure.

“You must volunteer yourself rather than the court giving a court order on this. She (Rani Laxmibai) is a national figure. She is not a religious figure. Ask your clients if they can make an accommodation. It’s not making sense to us, why is the passion so high?” the bench told senior advocate Viraj Datar who appeared for the Idgah committee.

“We are putting to you very candidly; we are not able to understand. Why this opposition?” the bench asked, describing this as one of the reasons why the police had imposed restrictions as a precautionary measure.

The statue is currently installed at the roundabout of Rani Jhansi Road near Karol Bagh, and is proposed to be shifted to the Idgah Park as part of plans to widen the road. After the high court’s single-judge bench dismissed the plea against the move on September 23, the committee approached the division bench for relief. The bench led by chief justice Manmohan was not inclined to grant relief either.

“No one wants to disrupt your prayers. We get that. We don’t want a flashpoint. You please tell them how we are approaching the matter. Let this not become a flashpoint. Let them also agree, give them a chance no. I think we can do this with consent.” the bench said.

The high court, which fixed October 4 as the next date of hearing, also frowned upon a 2021 decision by the Delhi Minorities Commission that ordered the authorities to maintain status quo, saying the commission didn’t have the power to do so.

“Does the minority commission have the jurisdiction to do all this? It has the power to make general recommendations and cannot assume the role of a civil court. They are passing injunction orders. You have relied upon the orders passed by the minority commission; these orders are per se void and without jurisdiction. There is no challenge required. If it is a nullity, it is a nullity,” the bench said.

To be sure, justice Dharmesh Sharma’s order of September 23 emphasised that the park and open ground surrounding the Idgah did not belong to the managing committee but the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). Justice Sharma also rejected the committee’s reasoning that Rani Laxmibai’s statue facing the front portion of the Shahi Idgah, where Eid Namaz is offered, would endanger the right to offer prayers or perform any religious rights.

At a previous hearing, the division bench had sharply criticised the managing committee for making “scandalous” pleadings in its appeal against a single judge’s order and ordered the petitioner to delete portions from the petition that sought to involve the court in “communal politics” and “use it as a pawn”,